Chapter 327

As the first rays of the morning sun touched the mountain peaks, Arlene, already dressed – well, she had a gown on over her sexy sleepwear – bounced astraddle Jeff's stomach. "Get up. It's Christmas."

Jeff didn't bother looking at his watch. He was well aware that he'd had only a few hours of sleep, due mostly to the demands of his wives during the night. Enough sleep for an Alpha – barely – but with the all-nighter from the night before, he would certainly rather remain in bed for a while longer. She had him awake, but he was going to make her pay for it.

"Just five minutes more," he said, trying to mimic Arlene's voice – unsuccessfully. That even drew a chuckle from Diana.

But Arlene knew how to get him up, in more than one way. "Here," she said, leaning forward, her voice suddenly sultry, "My breasts are full." Pulling her top aside, she pushed a perfect globe with an extended nipple against his lips. "Suck, Husband."

As his lips attached and she felt the hard suction pull the milk from her nipple, she realized she had made a tactical error. His sucking felt good. Really good. And despite herself, her orgasm followed a few moments later. Arlene was never quiet when she came.

When the orgasm tapered off, Jeff pushed her back a little, then kissed her hard. "Now that's a great way to start the day," he said with a chuckle. Sliding off the bed and coming to his feet, he grabbed her hand and pulled her up beside him, one breast still swaying free, the exposed nipple swollen and dripping milk.

By then, giggles and grumbling announced that everyone was awake whether they wanted to be or not. Diana's, "Gotta pee," started the usual avalanche toward the bathroom.

In short order, they were all pulling on modest gowns or robes, but Jeff stood guard at the mirrors. "Move, Husband," Jennie said as she tried to get to her hair brush.

"Nope. Nobody gets prepped to open presents. Bad hair, morning breath and all, that's part of the fun. Besides, my women are too damn beautiful for those things to matter, anyway."

There was serious disagreement about the morning hair, and several of the wives "pointed out" that they didn't want to be on a Christmas morning video with their hair sticking out in all directions, but Jeff solved the problem by escorting a protesting, though laughing, Diana out the door before she could talk him into letting them brush their hair. The Clan Queen, when she saw she was going to lose the argument, called over her shoulder that there had better not be any of Jeff's wives in the living room with their hair done unless it was her. They might argue with Jeff, but none of them was going to defy the Clan Queen. They were all, including Diana, frantically running their fingers through their hair while walking down the hall.

Before the Matthews reached the living room, Diana called out to the AI to wake the women and to inform them that brushing hair and applying makeup were no-nos before the presents were opened.

When the lights came up awakening her, Eileen was at first certain she must have left them on after her late-night snack. That thought was short lived when she realized the TV was on with the AI seemingly staring at her. "Diana requests your presence in the living room, and she further stated that you should not brush your hair or put on makeup before the presents were opened."

Eileen pulled the sheet above her breasts as she sat up.

"Are you fully awake?" the AI asked.

At Eileen's tentative nod, it continued, "Please hurry. The Clan Queen will not be pleased if you are late."

A couple of minutes later, Eileen had just finished with the bathroom when her bedroom door burst open. "Let's go, Slowpoke," Kathy said as she hurried over to grab Eileen's hand.

"Wait. Wait. I can't go like this."

"Here," Kathy said, tossing Eileen her short robe. "This will do just fine. It's more than Jill and I have on. Besides, nobody will be looking at us; it's Christmas."

Eileen got a glimpse of herself as Kathy dragged her past the mirror, but a few pats of her hair was all she managed as the women hurried her down the hall toward the living room with Bill tagging along behind grinning from ear to ear.

It seemed like everyone had remembered one thing: a camera. And all of them, from cell phones to expensive hi-res video cameras, got a workout during the next hour or so.

As more and more presents were given out, opened and oohed and aahed over, a big box became visible toward the back of the stack. Jeff, who had been giving out presents from that side of the tree, stopped to move several smaller presents from the top so he could see the tag. "The Matthews," he called out, "from Dave, Evie, Kim and Linda."

Resolutely, though, he continued to give out the other presents, waiting until each was opened and shown to everyone before he gave out the next. Dave, not wanting Jeff to feel the weight of the box, lest he guess what was in it, got up, walked around behind the tree and pushed the present to the front where everyone could see it. "You've stalled long enough, Jeff. It's the last one. Open it."

By then, all Jeff's wives were gathered around. "You open it," he told his wife, but Diana was shaking her head, a thought beginning to glimmer.

"No, Baby. I think you need to open this one," she responded as his other wives voiced their agreement.

Jeff, with a final glance at his wives, shrugged, then reached to carefully pull a corner of the shiny paper up. "Where in the heck did you get a piece of holographic paper this big?" he asked as he gazed at the package, then moved a little to watch the scene on the paper change one last time before slipping a fingernail under a strip of tape and hesitating again.

"Will you open the damn package," Dave almost snarled out. "You know we'll never use that paper again, no matter how unique it is."

"Crap, it seems a shame to..." and the Prime yanked the paper down the front, then in a few strokes had the box free of its wrapping. But that hadn't accomplished much. Now, there was a big, plain cardboard box sitting there.

Evie handed him a box cutter, and he made short work of the taped seams on the top. Reaching in, he pushed a hand through the tissue paper – and froze. Turning back to Dave, "You told me you disposed of the carcass," he accused.

"Yep, sure did, but I didn't say anything about how."

Nat, Nicki and Whitney, having arrived at the Retreat after the event Jeff and Dave were talking about had happened, were jumping up and down as they called out for Jeff to take out the present.

The Prime, with another glance at Dave and Evie, tipped the box forward, pulled aside the tissue paper, grabbed the contents of the box and gave a hard pull. The grizzly bear skin, now a beautiful rug complete with the head and paws still in place, slid across the carpet to fully extend itself as it came to a stop directly in front of the three young wives – who squealed, danced back and almost pissed their pants until logic took over and they realized what they were seeing.

"Where in the world..." Nicki began, but then she remembered the story about Jeff killing the bear, and ... the bear almost killing him. Had it not been for Diana, Arlene and Little One, he would have died.

Diana, a look that Jeff had never seen on her face, grabbed his neck to pull him down so she could whisper into his ear. "We're going to break that bastard in after everyone goes to bed tonight."

"That might leave stains," he quietly tried to reason.

Stepping back, and at a normal tone of voice, "Exactly," she said with feeling. "That big bastard almost took you from us. I'll gladly stain his carcass, and we'll do it for the first time tonight."

Jeff briefly wondered what the guy at the cleaners would say when they sent him a bearskin rug to have come stains cleaned from it. As he stared at his Clan Queen, her hands on her hips, a grin took over his face. "Damn straight, Woman. Damn straight."

The room erupted with laughter, everyone having guessed the part of the conversation they were unable to hear.

Bill turned to Eileen, then as proudly as if he had done it himself, bragged, "Jeff killed it with a damn pistol. Taught that SOB to screw with a Prime."

"How big is it?" Eileen got out. "I mean, how tall was it?" she asked as she stared at the monstrous rug, knowing that this giant bear had been alive at one time.

Dave answered, "The taxidermist said it was eight feet six inches. Not quite the record for a grizzly, but not that far off, either."

Kathy walked over to put her feet next to one of the bear's feet. Its foot was longer than both of Kathy's feet together, and the claws were scary-enormous.

Eileen grabbed Kathy and Jill to whisper, "Do you suppose Diana and Jeff are really going to..."

Jill had to giggle at that. "Not just Diana and Jeff," she whispered back. "I'd be amazed if all his wives don't screw him on the rug before the night is over." When Eileen's eyes grew wide, Jill went quickly on. "You haven't heard the story, yet. But Diana tells it better than anyone. Perhaps we can get her to tell the tale tonight as we sit around the fire. Maybe she, Jeff and Arlene will even sit on the rug while they tell us."

Evie tucked herself under Dave's arm. "It was worth a sprained ankle to see the look on their faces," she whispered to him.

"To quote, 'Damn straight, Woman, '" he returned as he looked down at her smiling face.

"Think we'll get a turn?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"Well, I think ye ol' bear skin will be busy tonight, but there's always tomorrow night," her husband responded with a leer.

"It's a date," his little wife said with an evil grin. "Eat hearty and store up a lot of come. Tomorrow night, we'll add our stain to the big brute's hide."

The Prison Planet

With his meat dried and stored on his shelves, he sat to eat a steak and potato. As he ate, it crossed Morales' mind that it was Christmas Eve, but Christmas had never been a big thing for him and his mom, basically because there had not been extra money to spend on things other than the absolute necessities. By the time he was out on his own, that mindset was established, and he generally didn't bother with the hassle of Christmas.

Having read in his survival books that buffalo sinew worked well, he had kept the tendon from the backstrap of the young beast and had also kept its legs from the knee joint down. He had fishing line and rope, but like all the original equipment he had, they would have to last for a lifetime. According to the articles, sinew could be woven into a very strong cord, and with its natural stickiness, its fine strands worked well to tie arrowheads and fletching to arrow shafts.

One of the articles had included a schematic of a buffalo and the uses for each part of the animal. The American Indians had thrown absolutely nothing of the animal away, even using his balls for rattles. I'm not at that stage yet, he thought with an unconscious grin, but I'm not going to let the sinew go to waste. It's not as if I have a TV to pass the time away. Shit, I wish I had thought to keep the tendons from the antelope. Hmmm. I wonder if the tendons from pigs could be used for sinew. Of course they would be much shorter, but still...

When the tendons had dried enough to look similar to the picture in the article, he moved two big rocks/lamp stands into place and put one of his fat torches on either rock to give him as much light as he could manage close to his work. The tendon from the back of the buffalo was far different in appearance to the ones from the legs. The leg tendons were round and a couple of feet long, but the tendon from the back was much longer and basically flat in appearance.

Rereading the section on sinew, and using the pictures as a guide, he began with the backstrap tendon. He gripped the tendon with each hand, using his thumb and index fingers to do so. With his hands positioned almost together, he twisted the tendon in opposite directions. The tendon obligingly began to separate into finer and finer fibers as he continued the process from one end to the other. Then taking those separate strands, he did it again and again until the fibers were thread-thin. As he worked through the process, he laid the fibers aside. He would later use them to tie on arrowheads and fletching to shafts, or use the fiber to wind around a wood bow, called sinew backing, to give the bow more strength. He had his beautiful compound bow, but he had a use for another, much less powerful bow in mind.